Letter to the Editor
Donald H. Voss
Vienna, Virginia
EDITOR:
Have you ever wondered about the origin of the name
Rhododendron prinophyllum
?
Rhododendron periclymenoides
is named for the similarity of its flowers to those of the honeysuckle,
Lonicera periclymenum
.
Rhododendron calendulaceum
calls our attention to flower colors resembling those of
Calendula
. "Phyllum" means leaf - but what is "prino"?
Searching for the origin of the specific epithet applied to our native clove-scented azalea, I consulted several reference books dealing with plant names. Result: zero. But a clue was found in the azalea volume of Davidian's new work on
Rhododendron Species:
"With leaves like
Prinos
." Recent lists of genera were checked; result: zero. Then an old (though now outdated) stand-by came to mind, Willis's
Dictionary of the Flowering Plants
. Eureka! "
Prinos
Gronov. ex L. =
Ilex
L. (
Aquifoliac
.)." The author reference for
Prinos
takes us to Gronovius, who, with assistance from Linnaeus, published the 1739
Flora Virginica
.
Linnaeus included the genus
Ilex
(hollies) in his 1753
Species Plantarum
, the starting point of modern botanical nomenclature. But he also included the genus
Prinos
, comprising the two species now known as
Ilex glabra
and
Ilex verticillata
. The name
Azalea prinophylla
, the basionym of
R. prinophyllum
, was published by the American botanist Small in 1914. He apparently saw some resemblance between the leaves of this plant and those of the North American hollies placed in the genus
Prinos
by Linnaeus. Thus the epithet
prinophyllum
connotes, as Davidian stated: "With leaves like
Prinos
."